The Two Modes of Leadership & How to Use Both
Q: Do the best leaders take charge, lead from the front, give orders and push people to do great work? Or do they listen to their employees, empower them and get out of the way?
Harvard Business Review, HBR, has spent years researching this, and their conclusion? The short answer is that great leaders do both, but it needs to be in the right context.
As a leader, you don’t want to get stuck in the ‘exercise authority’ mode, where the leader never relinquishes power. Additionally, you shouldn’t solely operate in the ‘flat’ mode, where the leader always shares power, forgetting the hierarchy of their company, either. According to multiple studies, HBR has concluded that leaders who “alternated the modes performed much better than the others, making objectively superior decisions.”
When to Shift Modes & How
Leaders who shift between power modes need to make it clear to their employees when the shift begins and ends. Employees need to be prepared for either divergent thinking, such as during idea generation, or convergent thinking, like when it’s time to map out the next steps and make a decision.
By sending clear signals to your team, you make them feel psychologically safe to offer suggestions, raise concerns and argue through solutions. When it is time to end this discussion and revert back to ‘exercise authority’ mode, the leader can then make their decision and act.
One way to signify this shift is through specialized meetings. Name this meeting in a way that indicates it is a time for brainstorming and collaboration. At Pixar, they call these meetings ‘the brain trust’. In that room, all ideas are welcome and high-level leadership stays quiet for the first few minutes to show their willingness to listen to employees. At the end of the meeting, the hierarchy kicks back in, and the project manager takes the lead.
Knowing when to step back, and setting a signal so employees know which mode to operate in, is the key to good leadership. For a more in-depth look at how to successfully set expectations for your team, read the Harvard Business Review Article here.